"About the same time an acquaintance in The West Indies sent him a puncheon of rum. Before he landed it, he consulted his master what he should do with it; who advised him to sell it out in small quantities, and lent him a cellar in his house. He followed this advice; and, finding the profits considerable, wrote to his correspondent in The West Indies to send him another supply; and from this time he commenced rum, brandy, and shalloon merchant.
"I cannot learn how long he continued in this way; but his master having acquired a fortune, and being desirous of retiring from business, left him in possession of his whole stock at prime cost, and he was to pay him as he sold it. He now commenced woollen-draper, and continued in this business till he acquired a sum sufficient, as he thought, to retire upon; and he left his business to his shopman, the late Mr. Job Ray, on the same conditions his master left it to him.
"During his residence in Covent Garden, he became a member of the club at the Bedford Coffee-house, and of course contracted an acquaintance with Hogarth, Lambert, and other men eminent in their way; and Hogarth lived some time in his house on the footing of a most intimate friend.
"On quitting his business (being troubled with an asthmatical complaint) he came and settled at Dover; where, soon becoming connected with certain persons in the smuggling branch, he fitted out a bye-boat, which was designed (as is supposed) to promote their business; but in this branch Fortune, which had hitherto smiled upon his endeavours, now frowned upon his attempts. The vessel, in going over with horses either to Ostend or Flushing, was lost. This, with some other losses, so reduced him, that he was rather straitened in his circumstances, and he could not live as he had done previous to the losses he sustained.
"His residence was near the Rope-walk at Dover (since pulled down), where his old friend Hogarth frequently visited him: but being in a decline, and his asthma increasing, he bought a very small cottage at West Langdon, about three miles from Dover, to which he used to go on horseback. Digging in a very small garden belonging to this cottage, he had the good fortune to find some valuable fossils; which to a man of his taste was a singular treasure. He died January 9, 1768, at the age of 70 (possessed of about 1500 l.), and was buried at St. Mary's Church at Dover. His collection of shells and fossils were sold by auction at Longford's, the following year.
"The foregoing is the substance of what I have gathered from Capt. Bulstrode. If there should be any other particular which you are desirous of knowing, I shall be happy to make the inquiry, and to communicate it; and am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,
"J. Lyon."
[89] William Gostling, M. A. a minor canon of Canterbury cathedral for fifty years, and vicar of Stone in the isle of Oxney, Kent, well known to all lovers of antiquity by his truly original "Walk in and about Canterbury," first printed in 1774, of which there have been three editions. He died March 9, 1777, in the 82d year of his age. Of his father, who was first a minor canon of Canterbury, and afterwards one of the priests of the chapel-royal and sub-dean of St. Paul's, there are several anecdotes, communicated by his son, in Sir John Hawkins's "History of Music." To which may be added what King Charles II. is reported to have said of him, "You may talk as much as you please of your nightingales, but I have a Gostling who excels them all." Another time, the same merry monarch presented him with a silver egg filled with guineas, saying, "that he had heard that eggs were good for the voice."
[90] See the [Catalogue], under the year 1782.